NBA Power Rankings week 10: OKC Thunder vault up ladder

San Antonio Spurs:

Offense: (109.3) 13th
Defense: (110.9)  20th
Net: (minus -1.6) 18th

Games Week 10 (2-1): Won vs Grizzlies: 145-115, Pistons: 136-109, Lost to Mavericks: 98-102
Games Week 11: Tues vs Warriors | Thurs vs Thunder | Sat at Bucks

Remember when I warned to never count out Gregg Popovich’s squads and how it only leads to him having the last laugh?

Well — suddenly the Spurs are sitting on the ladder (as of this posting). Moreover, they have pulled up to the 13th ranked offense and through the last 10 games boast the sixth-best defense.

Entering week 11 the timing of the Spurs breakthrough is convenient as they’ll play our OKC Thunder to try to narrow the gap between them prior to back to back games versus the top club in the NBA (Bucks).

More importantly, week 12 will launch a 21 game segment of their schedule where San Antonio plays 15 games on the road including the infamous rodeo trip in February (and nine of those 15 games are against current playoff seeds).

In the interim, LaMarcus Aldridge is shooting 3-pointers this past week connecting on three versus the Grizz and five against the Pistons. It might be an outlier or maybe Pops has him working on that shot.

Or, maybe LMA recognizes his future value is directly related to his ability to work the shot into his repertoire. He’s got another full season to work on it — but it wouldn’t be an out in left field thought for him to consciously sprinkle in a few more per game to up his contract value next summer.